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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Countdown to Christmas!!

This another "rewind" post of sorts and it includes a couple of my all time DIY Christmas projects that I did last year. I wanted to highlight these now so you would have plenty of time to work on them if you are so inclined. :)

I'll show you a couple of my advent calendars and then show you some inspiration for advents. FUN! First up is my vinyl countdown. I had an Uppercase Living party just to get this sucker for free. (That's how I roll.) In the catalog it says to put it on a pizza pan, but I wanted something I could put anywhere in the house and a pizza pan didn't sound like it would work (more on that later!)

So, I got a round table top from Lowe's, painted it with magnetic paint, then put a coat of white over the top. After the paint was good and dry I put my vinyl on:

(You can click on most pictures to get to last year's posts.)

(Sorry for the poor quality, I'm using last year's pics!) I hot glued a fun ribbon around the edge:Then got a little wooden tree from Hob Lob, painted it, and hot glued a magnet to the back for the countdown marker: I love this one. It's fareeeking adorable, yes it is.

As I mentioned last year, it was a very good thing the Bub had no sense of time because I didn't finish up this next project till about 12 days before Christmas. He got day 12 a couple times, day 23 a few...you get the picture. ;)I just took the cardboard boxes you can find at most craft stores and painted them -- half red, half green. Then I attached paper to the fronts, some fun stickers, brads and stuff. I went a little overboard with the stuff, but that's half the fun don'tchaknow... This whole advent calendar cost less than $18, because I got the boxes on sale. If you've got older kids they could totally join in and make these with you!

I get little trinkets for the boxes from the dollar store, etc. Starting this year I'll also write down activities we can do together and put those inside. Maybe take a drive to look at Christmas lights, make cookies, watch a Christmas movie, things like that.

Of course after I did this, I saw Carrie's adorable version, that is to. die. for.:I am considering hanging ours the same way, or even trying to get it into a Christmas tree shape. For now, I kind of like the idea of just one sitting out every morning for the Bub to open. Less temptation for him. ;)

Here are some other fun ideas I found looking around the net...

Speaking of pizza pan advents, this one turned out soooo adorable, I kinda wish I had seen this before I did our round one! Love the ribbon woven through!:

(Click pics to go to the source site.)

Something as simple as pails would be sahweeeet with some spray paint and numbers:

You could hang them anywhere!

I LURVE this idea!! Match books covered in fun paper with numbers attached: This one would be only for written activities but I love that idea. (And how GORG to put them in an apothecary jar! Gleeee!) The site I found this on was from years ago and she got it from an old magazine, so sorry there is no source for this one.

I scanned this one from my Women's Day holiday mag -- same idea, but on a corkboard:Oops! She did it again... Martha never fails to amaze me:

Little bubby socks! With little bitty bubby clothespins! Ack.

Here's a similar version, I think this person made the stockings herself. If you sew, this wouldn't take long at all!:

Here's another Martha version using old Christmas cards:

A cutie felt calendar with pockets:

(Which could be used for just about anything, depending on the colors you use.)

These are from an Etsy shop (click pic) but look easy enough to make on your own:

Ohhhh, I know! I know! What about doing them in red velvet or felt and adding a little bit of white fluffy trim around them to look like Santa sacks?? I'm dyin' here! Could that be any cuter??

By the way, that's a hint for an upcoming Christmas project I'll show you soon!

Have you seen any other great advent calendars out there? If so, share them in the comments!

The Before and After Party will be open and whooping it up till this weekend, so link in or visit the party! And I have a fantabulous molding project to show you later this week -- with my first video. Egads. That is, unless I find my senses and decide to nix that part. We'll see... ;)

These are all so adorable. I gotta tell you, though, when Bub is a little older, you're going to want to get him the Lego Advent Calendar. Oh.my.goodness, what a fun treat! A tiny little Lego set (just a few pieces each) to put together for 24 days! Honestly, this is a WONDERFUL product. Go to Lego.com and take a look at it! And if a mom were really great, she could take the little Lego sets out of the Lego box (even though it's a cute box with little windows to open for each day) and put the Legos into her adorable homemade boxes. I think that really great mom would be you. GMS. Great Mom Sarah. :)

Wow! Thanks for sharing our little advent calendar. The Root & Wings Co girls and I have a serious problem with collecting advent calendars. Our collections grow every year. What a great bunch of ideas in this post!!

Thanks again! It sure feels good to find us on a blog we adore so much!!

Love all of them!!! I do the 12 Days of Christmas with my girls and my MIL (who is 91!!!). I pick up cute little boxes/sacks/etc. and fill them with little trinkets for them to open the 12 days leading into Christmas. They all get so excited (especially MIL) to see what is inside. MIL even gets exicted about a Christmas Box of Kleenex!!! LOL

Those are all so cute! I love Advent calendars- I made a fun one with photos a couple years ago from BHG- here's the link if you're interrested: http://wannabecrafter.blogspot.com/2008/01/few-finished-projects.html and one more I did here: http://wannabecrafter.blogspot.com/2008/01/few-finished-projects.html

I like the ones you did the best. I saw a felt haunted house one @ TJ Maxx for halloween. Apparently, it's hip to countdown for each holiday now. Imagine the possibilities for Easter. The little buckets would be cute for Valentine's day. I used the stocking garland (not as an advent calendar), draped across a cream colored shower curtain in my guest bath one year. Cool ideas! I love the way you write...sounds like I think, but don't have the "stuff" to say it. LOL!

These are gorgeous! I have been wanting to make one for a couple of years, and I finally did it, too! Here's mine:http://mudpiestudio.blogspot.com/2009/08/christmas-advent-calendar.htmlWould love for you to see!Lori

Hey there! I just recently found you blog and have spent the last 5...YES 5 hours reading!! I am in love with your home, your attitude and ideas, and the fact that it's all so easy! Thanks so much and wanted to share this cookie sheet advent calendar!

Guess it's time to start thinking about these things!!! Hey, you inspired me to get ready and decorate for fall this year so I'll look to you for my Christmas inspiration too :) I think I'll wait until after Thanksgiving to get serious though. . .

Thanks for doing this early. I'm thinking it might be a fun thing for me to make for my SIL who we will see for Thanksgiving but not for Christmas, might just make their Christmas gift and give it to them early, then they can use it all holiday season=) My only problem is I have 4 kids, teeny tiny pockets make it hard for 4 kids, how does everyone else do that? In the past I have a Santa with numbered pockets in his beard where I placed tiny ornaments in them and each kid rotated getting to get one out and then they would put it on the tiny Christmas tree that sat on the foyer table. Not as much fun to only get to open it once every 4 days.LOL Help me with ideas! I loved that tin one Kathy linked us up to, the old paper scrapper in me was itching to handle all that stuff again!=)

thanks for the ideas! this is something on my "to-do" list of what i want to conquer before christmas, we'll see if that happens. ugh. have you seen the one at pottery barn? felt tree, so cute, one day i'll get the motivation to tackle that one. maybe for now i'll do your little box idea, loved it hung up too. thanks!!

I just found some red plates at a thrift store and sprayed a circle of chalkboard paint in the center. I painted the words "Days 'Til Christmas" around the edge and hot glued a bow on top. My kids now love erasing the number each day and keeping a countdown til Christmas! I'll be posting pics on my blog (as part of a Christmas giveaway) this week.

I'm loving ALL of these ideas!! I grew up with the chocolate advent calendars every year. While I love chocolate, these are way more fun and unexpected. My favorite is the little box painted/papered up then attached to the magnet board-adorable!